MBBS Cost a Bomb in Telangana

Mohammed Younus :

The private medical colleges in Telangana are raking in moolah by virtually “selling” the MBBS seats under management quota at a very high premium, ranging from Rs 75 lakh to over Rs 1 crore for the five-year course.

Private medical colleges are raking in moolah by selling management seats at high premium

And for the seats under NRI quota, the “rate” is learnt to have touched Rs 1.25 crore this year. The counselling for convener quota seats began on Wednesday and for the management quota, it would commence in the second week of August.  There are 18 medical and dental colleges in the State. Of them, five medical colleges – Osmania Medical College, Hyderabad, Gandhi Medical College, Secunderabad, Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal, Nizamabad Medical College and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Adilabad are being managed by the State government.

Of the remaining, 10 medical colleges are in private sector and three medical colleges are being run by Minority Institutions. The total number of seats in all these colleges is 2,600, of which 1,750 seats are in private medical colleges. 

There are three categories of seats in the private medical colleges: Category-A, which comprises 50 per cent of seats which are supposed to be filled up from the merit list prepared on the basis of results of the State-run Engineering, Medical and Agriculture Common Entrance Test (EAMCET); Category-B, which comprises 35 per cent of seats under management quota which are filled up, supposedly from the merit list prepared on the basis of a separate entrance test conducted by these colleges; and Category-C, which comprises the remaining 15 per cent of seats to be filled by NRI students on merit basis.

Till last year, there were four categories of seats in private medical colleges: A, B, C-1 and C-2. While A category was the EAMCET convenor quota, B category seats (10 per cent) were under management quota, but were supposed to be filled up on the basis of EAMCET ranking, while C-1 category comprising 25 per cent seats were filled by the management at their sole discretion and C-2 was the NRI quota. This year, the government has merged the B-category (10 per cent seats) with C-1 (25 per cent seats); thus, providing 35 per cent of seats under the management quota without the involvement of EAMCET.

However, as per the High Court directions, the government directed that the managements should conduct a separate entrance test for the management quota and fill up the seats on the basis of ranks obtained in this entrance test. The government has made it mandatory for all the private medical colleges to notify their admissions of each category on the website of the concerned university. The colleges will have to publish the admission details in leading newspapers.

The government’s order, permitting the private colleges to have their own entrance test and merger of category B seats with C has come in handy for these colleges to make big money. While they have conducted their own entrance test, there are allegations that it was only a formality and they had finalized the admissions of students under the management quota well in advance. “These students were made to write the entrance test and ranks were given as per the pre-determined format,” sources said.

Under the management quota, these private colleges are supposed to collect Rs 9 lakh per annum from each student. Under NRI quota, it is Rs 11 lakh per year, as per the norms prescribed by the Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee constituted by the government. However, these colleges are said to be collecting at least nine to 10 times more from each student under the management quota. “On paper, they collect the fee prescribed by the government, but the remaining amount is collected in black,” sources said.

According to sources, the amount collected by the private medical colleges in black is not less than Rs 500 crore per annum. When contacted, Private Medical & Dental Colleges Association president ChalmedaLaxminarasimhaRao refused to make any comment on the allegations on the collection of hefty premium on the medical seats under management quota. He said that JNTU-H would monitor the counseling that would be held for those candidates who have appeared in the entrance test conducted by the private medical colleges. “About 10 colleges have about 502 management quota seats across the state.

Admission process would commence possibly in the second week of August,” he said. ABVP State secretary J Niranjan alleged that State government had been trying to get rid of the fee reimbursement scheme and that was the reason it has merged the convener seats with management ones. He said, “The government has not only increased the fees for various categories but it has allowed the private college managements to conduct their own entrance test to fill the seats under management and NRI quota.

We have been opposing both of the moves of government.” Though the government has stipulated certain fees for different categories, that are already very high, the private managements have been collecting more, he stated. SFI State secretary B Sambasiva alleged that by decreasing the percentage of convener quota seats, the State government has brought down the chances of poor people getting into the medical education. He alleged that college managements have been forcing the aspiring candidates to pay huge fees of up to Rs 90 lakhs or above for one seat.